HBO Go arrives on Amazon Fire TV

The most awaited app, HBO Go, has finally come to the Amazon Fire TV. They cut it close, but Amazon has made good on its promise by bringing the app to the Fire TV before the end of the year. In addition to the app being released, Amazon is adding HBO into the available voice search results alongside Showtime, Hulu, Crackle and others. That integration explains the need for the new Fire TV software update, version 51.1.4.2, expected in the next few days. Strangely, the app is not yet available for the Fire TV Stick. Amazon says HBO Go will come to the Fire TV Stick “this spring“. Amazon says today’s $79 Fire TV sale price in celebration of HBO Go’s arrival.

FINALLY!! This was the one thing I’ve been waiting for since I bought the AFTV. In fact, I held off purchasing it until they announced it’d be released by the end of the year. That was my deciding factor. Glad they made good on the promise. :)

With this addition, it’s difficult to find any glaring flaws in Fire’s app lineup. Sure, I guess the addition of Vudu would be nice. However, for streaming free movies, the big three are Prime, Netflix and Go.

In my mind, now that GO has finally been added, Fire TV has leapfrogged Roku and Apple. Those devices were already outclassed by Fire in terms of gaming, and now that the app libraries are more or less evenly matched, Fire TV is the better entertainment value by far.

I heard so many bad things about the Nexus Player like limited apps and games available. Fire TV has more apps. Lot of the apps on the nexus 7 aren’t available for the nexus player. No prime. Games are stuttering. Only 1GB of RAM for Nexus (2GB RAM on FireTV) and NO USB PORT. How would one use a wireless keyboard to browse the web or play videos off a portable hard drive? I was interested in the nexus player but I saw so many bad reviews about it so I passed on it.http://www.wired.com/2014/11/google-nexus-player/

Agreed. Bought the Nexus Player on release day and regretting it. Very limited in terms of native apps. Game performance is subpar. Only saving grace is that you can castfrom your Android device but then that’s what the cheaper Chromecast is for…

1. The auothor of this site wrote a guide on how to sideload “fire-tv” apps to the stick not long ago. In fact the past 2 weeks has circled around how to easiest do this. So scroll back half a page or two.

2. The reason it has not arrived for the stick is very likely imho content control again. Why can’t i buy/rent/watch some US movies and series, even apps unless I bend the rules and change my adress to another country? (a topic that has been covered here to)

Why are there DVD regions so I can not watch a DVD I bought in US on a european DVD player that does not bend the rules?

It can also be used to force firmware updates (god forbid) to run the app just as a firmware update can be used as a carrot to unroot (usb storage on unrooted but latest firmware?). Sony and Apple practice this alot,.